


Not every dragon is destined to die. Or to look handsome

by lea_anonym



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Hinata Shouyou is Sunshine, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Iwaizumi as Haku, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Kageyama Tobio is a Little Shit, M/M, Major Character Injury, Miya Atsumu is a Little Shit, Oikawa as Chihiro, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Soft Iwaizumi Hajime, Soft Oikawa Tooru, Studio Ghibli, heavy changes though, inspiried by spirited away, they're soft for each other uwu
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24027646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lea_anonym/pseuds/lea_anonym
Summary: Did Oikawa want to move? Nope.Did he think it would develop into a dangerous adventure? Of course not.Did exactly that happen? Yes.-Oikawa knows it wasn't the best idea to move - it wasn't even his - but he had no idea that he'll once find himself in a mystic bath house, surrounded by different creatures, wiping the floor for the nth time, meeting new people, overcoming old pain and fears and falling in love.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Terushima Yuuji, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Miya Osamu/Suna Rintarou, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	1. o n e

**Author's Note:**

> This basically just happened because I wanted to read such a crossover, but somehow didn't find one *suprised pikachu face*, decided to write one myself and also came to post this crossover nobody probably ever asked for
> 
> A few notes:  
> Additional tags to be added throughout the whole process of writing. If other essential warnings appear, I'll firstly mention it in the chapter itself and then tick of the box too (if it's one to be ticked off) or add the tag  
> Rare pairs, 'cause we need them, just sayin'. There'll also be a bunch of "popular" ships though (no idea how to name it lmao)  
> Anyways, if you still decide to go on: enjoyy

The glass under Oikawa’s fingertips is cold. An icy breeze, which is softly coming through the slightly opened window, is pushing the curtains gently back though they’re already grazing the light skin of his hand which is pushing the fabric out of his sight actually. Faint lights are glistening in the distance – some brighter, some quite dull – and he’s able to detect the faint rays of morning sunlight in the distance behind the houses of the small town, beyond the fields.

It’s his last day here. The few stray boxes behind Oikawa are yet to be loaded into the car though. He’ll miss it. Everything. He’s sure of that very fact, more than he’s ever been, and it makes his stomach churn with sorrow settled at the very top, pushing his heart firmly and hard that it hurts with every single pound. He’s seen his friends already, to say his last goodbye in person. Hanamaki and Matsukawa both were and are more than sad, more than ready to wail yet again about the fact that they won’t see their best friend every day in the morning when they’d go to school that they won’t have anyone to tease like Oikawa that they’ll lose their childhood friend.

That his missing persona will leave a clutching hole in their friendship although they’ll still be able to communicate via phones, email or even letters if the nets would turn down. It, however, will not be the same, as wickedly as they’d try.

“Tooru, honey, bring the last boxes yeah?”, calls his mother with a light voice, hauling another box out of the front door. “And don’t forget to close the windows!”

“Yes, mom”, he utters, just able to be heard downstairs, and quickly steps back from the window, a deep sigh crawling up his throat, a permanent frown on his face. His thoughts are still pretty mixed up when he closes the curtains which aren’t actually his but belong to the house, turning around to face the last boxes and pulls out the charger of his phone of the all so familiar power outlet. The screen is filled with various goodbye messages, he has to force himself not to cry utterly, again.

The boxes are in the car rather fast – way too fast for Oikawa’s liking, but if he had the chance to decide, he’d never move away from their current home and thus practically everything occurs too fast in the very moment moments. He’s seated in the back of the vehicle, his cheek lazily leaning against the window of the car with the icy coldness clinging onto his skin and he watches rather involuntarily how the familiar specks of his hometown firstly get changed to the roughly known outside of the town, then the highway and the many fields on the other side of the from pavement made walls on the side, then the even abandoned places after they left the highway yet beautiful nature around them as the way suddenly gets jerky, Oikawa’s hand is tightly gripping the fabric of his seat, eyes widened as he has no clue what’s going on and eventually takes a careful glance out of the window when the car comes to a forced halt which makes the old engines puff out air and the scaffold of the car squeak with a horrible high-pitched sound. His father is scratching his temples in mild confusion and his mother is insulting him and assuring Oikawa to come outside at last.

The only thing that leaves the brunette’s itchy and dry throat is a low groan in disagreement, nearly sounding like a whine, a pout visible on his face.

“C’mon, the weather is incredibly nice, the landscape is breath-taking – you could make picture for your Insta-whatsoever – you really have to stretch your legs and walk a bit. And don’t you dare to come with the sloppy excuse that your knee hurts again or even beg to differ. Plus, your dad really wants to find a shop or something else here which could help us win this situation, me too.”

Thus, Oikawa is practically forced to go out, even if he makes a face which he slightly tries to cover with his bangs, though fairishly badly. The moment his feet touch the ground – which comes to be a slippery bound of plants and he nearly trips over – Oikawa immediately feels like going back again, back home.

Or well, presumably his former home.

But at least his mother didn’t lie about the glorious vista. In the distance, a few fluffy clouds are slowly flying by, casting shadows on the small village beneath. High mountains are towering behind, the distance making them look so small, and next to the small looking buildings in front of the yet massive mountains loads of trees are covering the not with fields blotched ground. Right next to the spot where the car had probably suffered of a complete ‘shutdown’, a short statue is standing, right in the middle of a bit woods. The other trees were cut off or something similar happened there not all too long ago, you can easily tell by the many logs towered on each other which seem to be freshly cut off. The presumably old statue is made of a matte grey stone which yet flickers in the bright rays of sunshine – at any rate the parts which aren’t covered by moss which happens to be more than not – and should probably constitute a two-faced gremlin. That’s the only name Oikawa could call the thing in this very moment, his mind swirling slightly and he gets the urge to throw up his breakfast that just happens to be his last real meal on the long day. He roughly judges, by the location of the sun, that dawn will soon change the atmosphere of the boring and sad day to a pretty sunset painted by many different colours except blue and this is something that will hopefully make Oikawa forget _this_ , the whole situation and whatsoever, for once.

While his parents are searching for help, he takes out his mobile and indeed shoots a few pictures, some landscapes, some selfies with his usual grin which still doesn’t reach the corners of his eyes and sends them to his friends, a dearly sorrowful smile pulling at his lips instead of a happy one.

“Just let him be. He’s a teenager, he’s sad that we moved away and you greatly know that he’s emotional.” Oikawa frowns upon hearing his parents speaking; he assumes their conversation whirls around him.

His mother always wants to protect him dearly, but she somehow uses the excuse of him being a teenager – though he’ll turn eighteen in not even a fair month from now on – every time she and Oikawa’s father get into an argument about him, or even just a conversation.

Now, he’s definitely mad that he hasn’t heard the earlier spoken specks of the discussion and he’s left not being able to retort anything usable against either of his parents.

“Let’s lay this conversation down though, you know that you can trust my nose and I smell food in the distance, and if we’re lucky, those people serving food may also be able to help us out.” the thought of food leaves Oikawa slightly drooling over that fact although he has this angering feeling bubbling in his chest he feels every time his mom has such a kind of talk with his dad, his feet are mildly numb from sitting too long, many thoughts are running a damn marathon in his head and a gross feeling pitied itself in his stomach, but he still makes a way to his parents, padding right behind them.

“Are you sure your nose isn’t maybe wrong this time?”, Oikawa’s mother asks when they have kept walking for quite a while now, the already petered out soles of Oikawa’s shoes pestering his feet with every single step. He hums in agreement which could also be easily confused with a heavy breath though.

“No, it’s right behind this tunnel, I’m sure of it.”

“If you say so”, Oikawa huffs quietly behind his mom before they all must duck to wander through. He doesn’t even realise that he’s walking not even a few inches after his mother until he accidently bumps into her when his father suddenly stops too.

“I may can also smell the food now, but where even are we?”, she questions, putting a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Oikawa guesses the thing he’s able to see in front of them could be a train station or something along those lines, but he can’t really take a longer look since his father finally find the old Japanese styled restaurant they’ve probably searched for.

“Hello? Is this place still open?”

_Well, there’s still food placed onto the tables_ , Oikawa thinks. However, he doesn’t feel good about it, a weird emotion gnawing at his insides and he just wants to go as soon as possible. But he doesn’t even say a single word – he isn’t given the opportunity – his parents decide to pay later with the food looking too delicious and they settle down on a booth, his dad already eating the moment he plops down on one of the chairs.

“Don’t you want to get something in your stomach too, honey?” His mom looks up at him, reaching him a bit of meat. Oikawa only shakes his head numbly, saying he must go out for a second and vanishes hurriedly through the door, his phone clutched between his hands if something happens.

He’s visibly upset, maybe even furious and his parents perhaps only see it because of them moving away, away from his home, the place he has grown up for seventeen years, eleven months and two days, but that’s not the only reason, it’s even far from that. Oikawa is angry and scared and he just wants to find a way out of this mess – let it be this amusement park, as he came to identify the place when they entered the restaurant or the situation with being parted from something he loves.

His feet just carry him somewhere, his gaze not fixed on one single thing, rather on everything around him and he begins to see things blurry. He can’t really say how long he’s walked around for but he’s met with the big building of an _onsen_ soon, he finds himself standing next to the railing of a bridge which was built beautifully, he can tell.

Oikawa folds his arms after putting his phone in the depth of the pockets of his jacket and leans against the wood, propping up his chin on top of the back of his hand as he lets his arms untangle again in the next few seconds and stares in the midst of the river that just ends before his eyes and the lake – or even sea – behind it.

“Hey, you!” Immediately, scared to death, or barely before it, Oikawa jumps and flinches, somehow at the same time, turning around to the direction where a shocked and furious sounding voice suddenly chimes. A few feet away from him, a young man, probably the same age as him or merely older, is standing with a bewildered look painted across his facial features. He seems to be muscular – is indeed, judging by the arms which are yet hidden under the soft fabric of white cloth which is with blue the two only colours of his attire. His raven hair is spiked up, and Oikawa can’t help but think of a hedgehog for the blink of an eye before fear is running through all his veins, the ones in his brain included and he gulps loudly, leaving him a bit flustered.

At once, there is a boat on the water of the lake – or sea, Oikawa still isn’t sure and the only thing that’s running around helplessly in a circle in his poor mind is whether how to get away or what to do next in general – filled with monsters, presumably, and a horrified squeak emerges from the back of Oikawa’s throat.

“Shit, run as long as you can and don’t get in the way of one of those… creatures, understood? Just go as fast as you can! You should’ve never happened to be here!” Oikawa feels himself nodding stiffly when the raven-haired speaks urgently, ushering him to go rather harsh than gentle with a push away and he doesn’t have to be told twice, clearly.

While he’s running down the wide street with his feet carrying his suddenly heavy yet light body, a headache is badly rummaging the very front of his head. He is frequently looking around, the fear to meet more of those ‘creatures’ being deep in the pit of his poor, fairly empty stomach and reaches the mark of his very bones, but, honestly, he can care less in that moment. His breath is becoming shorter with every air he takes in and puffs out, rushed, lungs hurting wickedly such as his throat does, but he doesn’t stop, he just can’t. His pace increases once, then drops twice until he’s able to find the speed his body can keep up with scampering so fast. It’s a miracle that the brown-eyed somehow even avoids the shadows which begin to cast in the edges of the deadly silent amusement park, the black void transforming into more ‘creatures’ – Oikawa still has no idea what to call them and even though he can care way less, he thinks it’s pretty inappropriate to call them ‘monsters’ without knowing any further background – and all Oikawa is able to do is try to hound away faster, his legs already touching the ground with minimal pauses in between.

“Mom, dad! We have to go away! Fast! This place is scary and there are strange _creatures_ out there!”, yells Oikawa when he barges in the restaurant, a harsh pain in his knee pounding badly; the only hold he can find in that very moment is the table his parents are sitting at without falling onto his knees. However, neither of his parents show any reaction, they just keep stuffing food in their mouths, or that being the thing Oikawa notices and his eyebrows nearly come in contact with his hairline.

“Mom? Dad?” Fear begins to bubble in his chest. “There are creatures out there, _strange_ ones! And this isn’t a normal amusement pa-”

Badly, he wants to scream, to let everything out he has left in his lungs when his father turns to him. Or rather what he used to call _it_ just a few minutes ago.

On the place on the booth where his parents formerly sat down, there aren’t his parents anymore, not as he remembers them if he didn’t miss something in his past when he was growing up. There are pigs, big and fat pigs – _sorry, mom, dad_ , the brown-headed notes – which just don’t stop eating, but wear the clothes of his mom and dad.

“Stop eating!”, he hears himself shouting, throwing the piece of meat his father tries to eat away and pulls at him with all his might; but he is reasonably tired so it doesn’t really work and he just slips on the floor, landing on his back with a muffled hiss. The world is blurry in in front of his eyes. He shuts them, crazing his neck, and just lies there, blinking often, in hope, that this may be just a dream, a night terror on top of that. Although everything seems so real. From the beginning at the tunnel, across the wide street of the eerie area here until now, when he’s doing nothing but trying to calm his breath, thoughts running wild, limbs aching, heart clenching, chest filled with nothing but dread.

Oikawa doesn’t realise he starts crying at first, only until the wetness begins rolling down with big drops, flowing over his puffy cheeks. A strained sob escapes his throat, he lays an arm over his eyes. Whatever should happen next, he’ll be with his parents. If someone found them, he’d just go with his parents, it’s not like he has anything left anymore.

“Didn’t I tell you to run away!” It’s rather a statement than an actual question.

Startled by the familiar voice, he sits up nevertheless his thoughts, wiping his tears, dried or not, and straightens his back, looking at the male with slightly red eyes. His hands are hidden under the long sleeves of his jacket is fumbling with the fabric.

“I can’t”, Oikawa mutters under his breath, voice shaky and cracking at the end, and points at his parents with a short and fast yet obvious movement of his head.

“Listen, you aren’t allowed to be here. It’s dangerous for humans. I don’t think the witch will free your parents anyway.” The spiky-haired male sighs heavily after he finished speaking with a tone of voice that seems more than done and reaches out his hand, gesturing the chocolate-eyed to grab it and stand up.

“Then what are you going to do with me? I won’t leave, whatever happens to them will happen to me too. They may be pigs but they’re still my parents!” He raises his voice at the end, spitting the sentence out halfway to cover up the fear bundled in every single one of his nerves.

“Still, you should just-”

“Hajime-san!” Oikawa doesn’t have the time to even blink once before a rather tall male suddenly appears in the doorway of the restaurant, probably around Oikawa’s own height; he is out of breath, his arms on his knees merely supporting him to hold him up. But a bit of luck still seems to settle in Oikawa’s faith, he’s somehow going by unnoticed until now and ‘Hajime’ instantly ushers him to crawl away and hide, which he, even if hesitantly, complies and crawls behind nearby chairs that are placed messily next to each other. He can hear his blood rushing through his ears, his veins, his head; the sound is sickening.

“What happened now?” There is an annoyed tone able to detect in ‘Hajime’s’ voice, even more than when he was speaking with Oikawa just a few mere seconds before. Said male is trying to keep himself as small as possible, his knees pulled to his chest, arms draped around them, head hiding between that he nearly can’t see those two talking. However, that he’s keeping all his limbs tangled together obviously doesn’t change the fact that he stands at 6’06 feet which impedes his hiding situation in particular.

“Atsumu-sama left the premises and nobody knows for how long. But because he didn’t even mention a single thing, he’ll probably won’t be gone for too long. Or so I, and probably the others too, hope.” A silence casts upon the conversation again, the tall male bows and Hajime suddenly scampers back to, Oikawa assumes, the _onsen._ A fear, a bigger one than before, is in his chest all of sudden when he realises, he’s alone with some stranger he doesn’t know he can trust and he doesn’t know what to do. Thus, the brown-haired just waits there in between the chairs with his eyelids suddenly pressed together tightly, his breathing nearly not able to be heard since he practically holds it, yet unknowingly.

He hears footsteps approaching his location. He nearly chokes on the air, but they aren’t there for him. They seem to be here for his mom and dad. And they are indeed, he realises moments after and is just about to jump out, revealing himself from his spot. However, before he’s even able to prepare himself what may could come, the stranger steps right in front of his sight, obviously preventing Oikawa from doing anything mindless, as if he knows he’s there. Oikawa can’t watch what’s happening but the squeaks of the pigs, which are shooed away from the restaurant, yet deeply engrave themselves in his brain.

He swallows silently, at least as much as he can muster, swallows back tears, swallows back sobs, the sorrow in his stomach, the urge to throw up, the cry in pain when a chair leg hits his knee, the urge to jump up and shove the other male out of the way and scream, the urge shout and beg to the people to give his parents back, the urge to give up and remain as bundled up as he is now.

“You can come out now.” The stranger’s voice is low and smooth when he speaks, also has a tinge of gentleness craved in it, but a strange cold tone yet sinks in and Oikawa shivers, entangling his limbs from the crooked form he’s stayed in for the past minutes hesitantly.

“Where are they taking them?”, Oikawa mumbles with a crack and stutter in his voice, his whole body shaking and he nearly has to sit down again. Especially when a wave of dizziness washes over him, his knees slightly buckling under his weight.

“To the stalls. And I’ll take you to the tunnel now, you luckily haven’t either eaten from here or encountered a _kami_ or _youkai_ now or crossed the bridge.”

“But my parents are pigs! They’re taken away and I should just go?” Oikawa can’t really keep the emotions down, his voice raising with them.

“We’ll be noticed easily if you continue speaking so loudly!”, hissed the other, a pleading look to be seen in his of unrecognisable emotion clouded irises which are a pretty gunmetal-blue hue. His hair is also black, maybe the colour of pure obsidian, his features are sharp, yet somewhat soft. All in all, he’s got a lean build and is incredibly beautiful – in another scenery Oikawa would be jealous.

The brown-headed doesn’t know what to do, to either scream or comply. He’s utterly scared, angry and sad and he for once decides to trust the stranger, who doesn’t seem to radiate any negative aura until now except for his slight coldness. Though Oikawa doesn’t know if he can really trust him, but rather that than being eaten alive or whatsoever.

“Keiji-kun, what are you doing here? And who is this?”

Time feels like it’s stopped.


	2. t w o

Goosebumps crawl up Oikawa’s whole body, shivers running down his spine and he’s frozen on the very spot – literally, he can’t move a single foot. A side glance is being thrown to the Keiji guy, who nearly invisibly gulps down the lump in his throat before he turns around, trying not to be too stiff all of sudden.

“He’s Akinori’s nephew, Atsumu-sama.” Keiji bows after he presses it out more or less believable, more or less stiff and without seeming shaken to much by the sudden appearance, maintaining an unbelievable good poker face if Oikawa is honest.

“I didn’t know he has one. Never mentioned him.” A snarl is obvious in the deep voice, it’s as if you can hear the smirk he’s got on his face while he’s talking.

“Probably because he’s human”, Keiji utters under his breath. Oikawa visually flinches at the mention of him being different than them – he guesses – and turns his head to a blond guy. His eyebrows are thick and brown, like his eyes yet they are a fairly lighter shade.

“However, why is he here now?”, Atsumu’s voice turned sharp, cold as ice as he continues speaking, eyeing the brown-haired male carefully as if he just waits for the right moment to expose him and turn into nothing but debris he could just blow away so it’d be carried away by the icy wind which keeps swirling around in the air. Oikawa’s mouth turns incredibly dry. He gulps, an itching feeling in his throat, with the hope that it won’t get any worse than it is engraved in his mind.

“He wants to work here.” The sentence isn’t even fully voiced, but Oikawa already coverts to retort something which surely wouldn’t be written well in his stars. He avoids doing so though, more thankful than not if he’s completely honest and a sudden fear tingles yet again in his chest, mingling painfully together with the other one thus it practically just grows.

“Work _here_? He wants to _work_ here?” The blonde’s voice has got a tinge of amusement mixed in it as he answers. ‘ _That can’t be real. He’s never qualified to do anything here. Why does he even want that? Is that a bad joke? The first day of April took place already though’,_ his eyes seem to say, not once leaving Oikawa’s posture with that burning yet amused gaze, lips curling into a half-hearted even shit-eating grin before all of his features turn stoic again and he tears the eye contact to bring his attention to Keiji. “I won’t hire him.” Oikawa doesn’t know what to think when Atsumu’s eyes turn into slits, pupils darting around his face. “Don’t even ask me to spare your parents.”

The called male is put into a daze, eyes widening, taking a huge step – two steps although he doesn’t know why he’s suddenly got control over his limbs again – back in precaution with his hands held up defensively and he’s got the immense urge to just run away as fast as his legs can carry him, though the dull pain which gets more prominent every moment will hinder this either way.

“Don’t hurt them”, he speaks with a steady voice which not only leaves Oikawa surprised, a pleading undercurrent stumbling in. But he’s only greeted by a sturdy laugh, a smirk and a shake of the blonde’s head. Atsumu takes small steps into his direction, Oikawa’s feet frozen to the floor all of sudden once again, and stops right in front of him.

“You’re too precious to be turned into a pig, to be honest. And you also haven’t done anything greedy like your parents to just waltz in and eat the food like that except for going through the tunnel and nearly walking into my onsen. What should we do to you?”

“Give me work. Let me work there. Let me pay my parents’ debts.”

_Although they would’ve just paid like normal people when they’d leave. But that’s not gonna happen, huh?_

“I don’t need an unexperienced guy who is annoying my hard workers, plus I don’t quite believe that they would’ve paid and it’s just utterly disrespectful, you know.” Oikawa must’ve spoken his thoughts out loud and hopes he doesn’t do it again. Then, Atsumu leans back, and Oikawa almost breathes in freely, loudly, but contains himself.

“Let me work!” He isn’t going to give up now, for the sake of his parents, though he was rather forced to do this due the events just a few mere moments ago.

“I could even give you reasons to not let you work. You’re annoying, unexperienced, will just disturb my hard workers and you’ll definitely shoo away every customer with your simple being.”

“Give me work. Then I’ll stop being _annoying._ ”

Whatever is suddenly driving him, it’s doing a great job. He presumes it’s the high amount of adrenaline in his veins or just the determined stubbornness, maybe even his craziness, perhaps he’s insane to talk to the man in front of him like that even though he’s addressed with “sama”. Or maybe he just wants to save his parents.

Or it’s just a weird mix of all those ingredients he can remember and once the adrenaline decides to vanish, he’ll regret everything. For now, he’s far from giving up, despite the whole damn situation he kind of just fell into without even wanting it for a single second.

But, honestly, who would even want that?

“What’s so hard to understand by ‘no’?”

“I will repeat myself if you don’t stop being so _persistent_ on denying.” Atsumu’s eyebrows twitch visibly, a dark aura falling upon his face – it’s nearly sickening – and he’s clearly just about to snap, to let that inner demon out.

“A tough one, huh? Your attitude will falter sooner or later, the sooner the better though.”

“Give me work, let me work”, Oikawa chimes through gritted teeth just when the other finishes speaking. Cutting off the blonde’s words isn’t his ambition, but to not give up sounds like it.

“You’re really-” Before the brown-headed can count to ten, there’s a tumult going on in front of the door of the restaurant, cutting him off in every way possible. He whips his head to that direction, neglecting the other two and jumps when people barge in – two young boys, one is fairly tall, about Oikawa’s, Keiji’s and Atsumu’s height with dark hair, a deep shade of blue actually if you really focus on it and not black like most of the people assume, the other one pretty is short, has wild orange hair and is currently fighting or arguing with the other. Although they seem to be trying to calm down, Oikawa guesses. But even with them being inside, the sound of the ruckus won’t go down any bit.

“Atsumu-sama, we’re sorry to interrupt you, but there’s an unrest going on the outside the onsen, other _kamis_ are already involved”, the taller one answers, bowing as a short greeting before his arcane blue eyes directly land on Oikawa, a taste of disgust or anger boiling in the irises of his slightly widened eyes.

“Who’s this though?”, the shorter male asks right away when the blue-headed ends. Oikawa cautiously looks – with shivers running down his whole body – to Atsumu, who has his eyebrows furrowed hard and a frown painted across all of his facial features. The brown-eyed boy doesn’t know what to expect, doesn’t know what to do and doesn’t know what to think, everything is swirling around one single issue which happens to be his future, as if that is a vast surprise though. Keiji also side-eyes the blonde while his gaze is nervously fixed on Oikawa.

“He’s the new worker. Tobio, you’ll take care of him. If he even just dissatisfies one single customer though, he’ll not witness the next day’s sunlight again, understood? And now go back to work, show him around or whatever, but bring him to me afterwards, around ten o’clock will be okay.” With a silent ‘plop’, the prettily defeated, annoyed and done looking witch disappears into the void, only to be heard a few moments later right in the tumult in front of the bath house which seems to loosen up quickly at last. The heavy knot in Oikawa’s chest does so too, he feels like he can breathe openly now although it’s still only merely written what’s supposed to happen next, if his luck is there too.

“I’ll go now, too. Tobio-kun, take care of him, yes? Don’t scare him too much”, Keiji mustered silently, a pat on both Tobio’s and Oikawa’s shoulder, a hug demanded by the fiery-haired boy and goes out the door, also seeming oddly relieved.

“You stink. And you probably haven’t even got a proper name. Why does Atsumu-sama always send those people to me? I’m younger than you, too and Shouyou is enough of a burden-”

“Hey!”, said boy interrupted, but Tobio doesn’t really care at that point and just continues, cold stare directly on the chestnut-headed, who nearly gulps loudly when he tries swallowing down the lump forming in his throat and takes a step back only to bump into the still messily placed chairs behind him, the ones he hid behind just a few minutes ago. That time, however, doesn’t feel like a few minutes, it rather feels like hours, weeks, years of waiting for a hopefully good end – and Oikawa clearly doesn’t know which path his future has chosen for him now still.

“-anyways. I’m sure you can’t even clean the floor like we do, especially with that knee. Should’ve sent you straightaway home again. But I can’t change that now, can I?” A bittersweet smile, a scary on top of that, flashes over Tobio’s lips before the grumpy expression settles in again.

“I’m not a weakling or whatever you try to refer me as. Now just lead me around or whatever you have to do”, mutters Oikawa at last, only waving his hand weakly. The adrenaline drifts off as the time ticks by. He doesn’t know whether to regret his actions or not, whether to run away now or stay. He doesn’t know it, not even for sure and it leaves him cold.

“I’ll show you the most important places for you now, then it’s probably around ten o’clock anyways and I can just send you off to Atsumu-sama. So, come now!” Tobio’s voice is harsh and cold, gaze just looking the same. Without even gibing Oikawa the slightest bit of time to ask about anything, the blue-haired boy turns on his heels, the orange head already in the _onsen_ again – Tobio told him that he should already go ahead to the bath house alone and complete his given tasks for today thus the latter can just concentrate on guiding Oikawa around and the chocolate-eyed boy has troubles with following him and keeping up the rather high pace especially with his now hurting knee which apparently makes him curse to every single _kami_.

This time, the walk back to the bath house seems longer than the way he ran to the restaurant although it’s the exact same way without other paths. The more time they spend walking, the worse the sickening feeling in his stomach got and he’s only barely holding himself up at some points, going unnoticed by the younger male. Oikawa clearly feels the adrenaline in his veins leaking out, the bravery he just showed forgotten and he just wishes to curl up in a warm bed surrounded by his parents and friend and cry.

“Try not to breathe too much when we’ll walk over the bridge, the _kamis_ and _youkais_ can smell you when you do so and that would probably just worsen our good name. Though they will smell you sooner or later”, Tobio tiredly adds with a short shake of head and just continues to go further, further away from Oikawa at any rate. On the other hand, Oikawa really would’ve liked to scream that the latter should just stop or just wait for a single moment, but he definitely isn’t going to verify the recent statement of him not being able to keep up with the other workers which also includes an irritated Tobio.

“’s not that I care about that or something”, he utters under an extended breath instead, making sure none of those words ever reach Tobio’s ears. They reach the bridge sooner than Oikawa has hoped for actually. Every step he takes reminds him what just happened, reminds him what could happen, what can happen, every step grows more unsteady than the previous one until the strange feeling in his stomach turns out to be sheer nervousness, tiredness and fear altogether and he wants nothing but to throw up at some point. But he contains himself luckily.

Surprisingly, Oikawa gets over the bridge without either exhaling or inhaling once, he yet shoots Tobio a short glance if he may breathe now. Otherwise he’ll probably fall to the ground due lack of air.

“You’re allowed to breathe now. The scent won’t be that strong than on the bridge. Dunno why though before your stupid head wants to ask.” Every word the blue-eyed male says is drained with pure venom and disgust. Oikawa even thinks he tries to be nice at some points, especially when he sees the dubious glares given at other workers and guesses he can be happy with the current situation of not being glared at like he triggered the next word war but just being side-glanced at.

This is still better.

Definitely.

They are passing by loads of _youkais_ and _kamis_ , workers and other creatures Oikawa can’t name, can’t even try to.

“On the ground floor, the _ji_ , are the customer-use baths such as the kitchens and the workers’ sleeping rooms. You’ll probably work down here the most.” The shojis which go down the whole corridor are made of dark wood, Oikawa assumes it is mahogany or another expensive wood, with beautiful carnations engraved in it – there are a few signs though they seem foreign or written in older kanji but the calligraphy is magnificent nevertheless – with thin paper covering the frames like in an usual traditional Japanese household. Though they actually seem a bit worn out if Oikawa looks straight at them, at least the paper. “The guests who come here are mostly in the middle class. There’re, however, also other classes. The lower one can’t afford a bath here; the upper class has basically got its own floor. We’ll go there now and don’t dawdle around or stare for fuck’s sake.” Oikawa doesn’t even really catch himself lingering on the same spot actually like he’s just randomly staying in the middle of the way when utter embarrassment settles in his body, his face practically starts burning and he quickly follows Tobio without saying a single word, yet biting back retorts, whispers in agony, hisses in pain and asks a question instead where he tries to keep his emotions down.

“How many floors are there?”

“You only need to know the boiler room which is the room I’ll presumably show you tomorrow, the _ji,_ the _niten_ which is the second floor where we’re heading to right now and the top floor which is Atsumu-sama’s office.” Oikawa silently nods, trying to memorise the floors with tiredness climbing up his spine. “These are also basically all floors.”

The brown-headed thought that the ground floor is mesmerising already, he comes to terms with the fact that he hasn’t seen the _niten_. The shojis are as well-built off dark wood, a woody even loafing scent comes in his nostrils with every breath he takes. Those engravings aren’t just simple kanjis, they’re mystical and fascinating pictures of various dragons – he finds water dragons, fire dragons, air dragons and earth dragons such as European ones with their immensely huge wings – _kamis_ – he can’t really recognise any god if he’s honest, he’s never been highly religious anyways and Oikawa slightly fears he’ll get eaten alive if he serves a _kami_ he doesn’t know the name off –, _youkais_ – _kitsunes_ (foxes), _mujinas_ (badgers), _nekomatas_ (cats) and a ton more – which are all also painted with a golden hue so they stand out even more. The paper covering the frames seems nicer and more preserved. Other than the floor in the _ji_ , the wood doesn’t creak all too much or even at all when he takes careful steps over to Tobio who is waiting in front of an elevator.

“You don’t have to be so careful, idiot. There are guests who are way more ruthless than you are and the floor doesn’t crack or whatsoever. And if it creaks than let it creak, there’s nothing could do about that anyways.” At that, Oikawa only shoots a half-hearted glare and sighs, trotting over to the blue-haired boy.

“This is the _niten_. The guests who come up here are part of the upper class which means they can actually pay for a bath here. However, it’s also pretty possible that there are groups coming up here and if they’re allowed, they’ll also take a bath here, also able to find in the upper class or upper middle class though. The workers working here are the ones who can actually clean the floors and tubs, not like you. I may haven’t seen you cleaning, but I can say that you suck only now.”

“Why are you always so mean?” That’s the point where Oikawa just has got enough of his shit and before he can even think about what he says, the words stumble out of his mouth and soon they can’t be stopped. “You keep behaving like I’m either the worst disease or I’ve just caused he next enormous war. Can’t you at least tell me what I did wrong? Can’t you just say what is so wrong I’m doing?” But he’s only met with silence and Tobio starts walking towards the lift, anger visible in his eyes and yet another feeling Oikawa’s not able to put in the right drawer just now so he probably has to wait for that. Even though he assumes it could be regret or a furious sadness, however that should work together.

“It’s five to ten already, we’re almost running late. C’mon, I’ll take you to Atsumu-sama”, the blue-headed instead mumbles a bit weakly yet still with the usual venom dripping in his voice right before the lift comes to a halt, other workers going out, they walk in. Perhaps Tobio wants to brush it off, maybe he just ignores it or it may hurt his feeling. Oikawa isn’t sure, far from it actually and lets out a deep sigh, keeping it down though, and leans against the wall of elevator, trying to not be too near to Tobio.

Just a few moments later, Oikawa must’ve sunken into his thoughts, he’s ushered out of the lift, two heavy doors in front of him. A slight European style’s able to be noticed when he takes a glance at the furniture. There’s a big cupboard seemingly filled to the very top of every drawer which made them look like they could explode any moment. Oikawa actually really wants to know what’s withheld in them, the urge to rush forward exceptionally immense in his tired state, thoughts swirling around crazily. A few stray statues which gruesomely remind him of the one in the spare woods where the adventure started are placed in the surface of the cupboard, shivers running down his spine and he rips his eyes away from them rapidly, glance instead landing on different accessories like ear rings or necklaces thrown onto a bunch right next to them, a few really mesmerising ones hanging deftly on the wall. The floor is so clean Oikawa swears he’ll be able to see his reflection if he looks down, but then he realises they’re not standing on the wooden floor but a carpet now.

Although he’s entirely lost in his own world, they’ve moved forward.

A strong grip on his shoulder signalises him to stop all of sudden, Tobio knocks loudly on the door to the right a few times before an annoyed voice lets them in. Or rather lets Oikawa in since the blue-eyed boy vanishes the moment the door opens. He feels, hears, his heart beating in his head, blood rushing through his ears. To say he’s nervous would actually be an understatement. The brown-headed doesn’t know what the witch is capable off, probably doesn’t even want to know and he greatly forces himself to go through the doorway into the office of Atsumu.

“I thought you may chicken out but look at you now.” Oikawa’s met with a sturdy smirk the moment he’s entered the room, a chair comes flying to him from behind, lifting him up with no effort and settles him down in front of the with papers filled desk of Atsumu. The moment he’s on the ground, however, the atmosphere seems to change drastically, aura growing deep, dark and arcane all at once.

“You at least managed to not die in this period of time, let’s say this is good, but you won’t even survive a single day here”, the blonde begins talking again, feather scratching furiously on the paper he’s writing on, eyes focused on the letters. His free hand waves around in circles at his side, Oikawa only maintains to get a hang of the meaning a few seconds later when a long letter suddenly flies in front of his head. He rips it out of the air to read it properly because it just hangs right in front of his eyes by not even a few inches, though it probably doesn’t make a single, utter sense now. He signed up for this earlier and has to face the consequences now, whatever they may be.

“You indeed have to. Seriously, you shouldn’t let me in your mind so easily, it’s kinda sad, y’know.” Abruptly, the brunette looks up, confusion and uncertainty drawn all over his face, relatively visible for Atsumu too. Oikawa doesn’t speak it out loud, but the other seems to understand and lets out a dry laugh, sounding threatening such as every word he snarls. “Humans are naïve creatures which thoughts witches can easily because they’re too stupid to not let anyone in, don’t even know how to do it, poor creatures.”

“This isn’t poor. Just because my world isn’t as-” _sick, horrible, mysterious, fascinating, Tooru, keep the fuck down_ “-unnormal as yours doesn’t mean we can be put into the drawer of dumb people without other evidence”, retorts Oikawa before he can even think about what he’s just doing.

“Don’t speak or think of our world like this. I still have got your parents, dear, don’t forget that or”, Atsumu draws a line with his pointer finger over his neck, mimicking a choking sound. The nauseous feeling in Oikawa’s stomach becomes intense, he blinks once, twice and shuts his mouth.

This feeling, he realises, only really hits when he’s around the blonde, as if his body can feel all the strong power coming from him. When he’s around the others – presumably normal humans or something along the line – it’s actually quite okay, at least way better than when he’s with Atsumu. Also, he kind of _knows_ the witch won’t really hesitate one single second to kill his parents with a simple snap of his fingers, the lives of them both literally lying in his palm now, in his actions, hanging on a thin string with Atsumu possessing scissors to cut it through every moment and he only wants the best.

“You basically just came here and forced me to give you this damn work. Now sign the contract and be a good worker or my fingers might slip.”

A long feather slowly sways in the air before it places itself between Oikawa’s fingers, a lump suffocating his whole throat and it’s difficult to breathe for two to three long moments.

“Promise me you won’t hurt my parents”, he presses out looking over to the blonde out of the corners of his eyes with his head literally hanging over the piece of paper.

“That’s all up to you. I won’t promise anything I can’t keep. Unless you work presentably, your parents won’t see the next dawn again. Think about your actions from now on, what will be good what not, what could kill your parents what not, what could ruin our name what not, what could take you down what not, what could hurt the others, what is important, what is wrong. Don’t let that slip out of your stupid mind.” Oikawa gulps slightly audibly, his hand feebly writing down his signature in a slight wobblier handwriting than he normally does.

The moment he lifts the feather from the paper, the contract rolls itself in, falling down onto Atsumu’s desk. Everything but his name is visible on the lowest line, the witch chuckling while looking up at him.

Oikawa could hit him right in the gut now, maybe then the unsure feeling with the pain in his chest and stomach will vanish altogether.

“You’re not Tooru Oikawa anymore, it’s a lame name anyways.” Before the brunette is able to comment a single darn thing, Atsumu chimes in again. “You’ll be Seikawa from now on.” Oikawa – or Seikawa? – lifts one eyebrow, blinking dumbly like a fish under water before he’s just thrown out of the room without any other instruction. Now, he’s standing right in front of the door of the office again, eyes darting around at the sudden change of locations once again.

“Took you long enough.” Oikawa visibly jumps, backing away from wherever that comes from before he realises it’s only Tobio leaning with loosely crossed arms right next to the elevator, eyes closed. “What’s your name now?”, he asks while the other is slowly walking over to the other, the usual frown, which hasn’t been present for just a few moments, suddenly pulled on his features.

“I was, am and will be Oi-”

“It’s one of the rules, you can’t go by your real name. But don’t forget it, and this will be the one and only friendly reminder and advice I’ll ever give you, understood?” Another wave of confusion hits the brown-eyed male, but he complies, answering with the new given name and wonders how he’d ever be able to forget his own real name. “Now come on, _Seikawa_ , Shouyou already prepared clothes and a futon for you, you’re too late for a meal though.”

The mention of food alone isn’t good for Oikawa, he thinks and is even glad to not be given the opportunity to eat in that very moment. On the other hand, he knows that he could probably eat a whole buffet tomorrow, but that’s for another time.

The moment he’s changed to his new clothes, the old ones next to his futon on the floor – he literally thanked the orange-haired sunshine a million times for this kindness – his sweater though being hugged to his frame, his eyelids drop and he’s pulled into a void of nothing, much for his liking now though.

He doesn’t know what will happen now, he maybe doesn’t want to know, maybe he does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> notes for his name (sources: haikyuu wiki, translator)  
> Tooru - to go through  
> Oikawa - reaching the river
> 
> I kinda connected _to go through_ and _reaching the river_ to "success" (pls don't ask, I realised I'm strange beforehand XD)
> 
> Seikawa:  
> Seiko - success  
> Kawa - river 
> 
> I don't speak Japanese so I hope this makes any sense ^^°  
> Also, please don't come @ me for making Atsumu the bad guy *ducks*  
> I like 'em all like how can you hate some of these babies, but I needed someone for this role, soooooo.... well. He be hot tho- you read nothing


	3. t h r e e

Oikawa wakes up to someone gently jolting his side. He lets out an inventible whine, a pout resting on his face, he is just about to grumble that his mom should stop shaking him awake before the events of yesterday come crashing into his mind, the jogging stops and he immediately jolts into an upright position. But the moment he opens his chocolate-coloured eyes, he’s met with nothing but the other workers sleeping soundly on their own futons, tucked under thin blankets.

When the midst of summer once will occur, these duvets will be too warm for a cover since it’s always way too hot during that time of the year. The brunette looks around highly confused, his tired gaze turning up and down, left and right until he finds a paper neatly folded next to him, his name, his actual, real name, written in a neat handwriting on the front. Charily, he takes the note and folds it open. The rather dim light of the morning sun is still just enough light he needs to read the words.

_I’m glad you’re still both human and alive. Let’s meet at the bridge, bring your normal clothes. I’ll explain things to you and/or answer questions, whatever you need. Before you wonder why I do this, I think you deserve this after you were practically forced to do this now. Plus, I kinda scared you, didn’t I? I save the other stuff for later though. – Hajime_

_Ps.: Don’t forget the clothes and your phone, I know I already mentioned it but it’s is better than once._

_Pps.: I mean the bridge in front of the entrance_

_Ppps.: Good morning_

_Pppps.: This sounds stupid though. But I won’t add an emoji so think of one. Thanks_

Oikawa has to read the message thrice even before he registers what it’s even about and another two times to understand what the other is even writing about. Then, he stands up, patting off some of the many creases of his clothes, puts the blanket on the futon in order, grabs his clothes which he firstly folds tidily and takes off to find a way to the bridge.

Not even a heartbeat later, he realises he’s literally got no plan where which location is and the only thing, he can do now is to go back to every place he knows from yesterday until he finds the entrance. Oikawa groans internally, rubbing his temples with his free hand and cautiously, slowly climbs over the other sleeping frames on the floor. He nearly steps on two unknown workers and Tobio – the latter would’ve been his death sentence for sure –, trips over loose blankets and almost pushes a vase onto the floor which he only barely catches but otherwise his little adventure in the early morning hours is definitely not exciting _._

With a deep yet contained sigh, he reaches the shoji of the sleeping room, watchfully opening the door and slips out quickly and noiselessly. He has to obtain himself to not start a little success party, thus throws his fist in the air instead and sneaks down the long corridor on his tip toes. He assumes when he takes this “route”, there’s a possibility to find the way he took yesterday although this seems to be put into a slight daze; Oikawa could really strangle himself.

When he reaches the kitchen – a wonderful smell penetrating his nose which almost makes his stomach growl in frustration because of the certain lack of food –, he has to duck and rush to not be seen by the chefs, at any other time he’d probably snatched one or two little snacks. Other than that, he runs into no one for what he is obviously glad for, a sigh travelling past his lips. He also finds out that he approximately doesn’t have to follow every of his previous steps from yesterday to walk to the entrance but just guiding himself roughly through the long corridors till he spots the lift once again – hiding behind a corner when two workers step out of one elevator booth and just barely escapes them, his heart climbing up his throat when he nears them. From there on, when he doesn’t notice any other danger, he just has to go straight forward and turn left once.

It could be his lucky day today, he thinks, smiling to himself and takes precautious steps to the doorway, his gaze flying from left to right regularly, frantically even at some times when yet so quiet noises reach his ears.

The moment he steps out, he immediately breathes in the fresh air. A few birds are mindlessly flying by, chirping here and there. Beyond the horizon Oikawa sees a few bright specks of sunshine coming from far away, the lake turns out to be an enormous sea. Small waves are splashing against the cliff on the other side of the building, white foam bubbling between. And in the glory in between everything, the _onsen_ is majestically hovering over everything with its colourful built.

Oikawa turns around once, twice, searching for the black-haired male he should meet somewhere here, but he doesn’t see him anywhere which leaves him completely confused, his brows not far away from meeting his hair line.

“Over here!” With a sharp movement – Oikawa swears he just heard his neck crack with an ugly sound – he turns his head to the direction where the voice comes from, a blue clothed figure waving with one hand, the other placed around their mouth when he realises it’s Hajime indeed. With fast steps, a dull pain in his knee has still remained since yesterday which he tries to ignore as well as possible, he skids down the grass, nearly tripping over his own feet when he reaches Hajime who is standing just under the bride so nobody could notice him all too easily.

“I thought you ditched me”, Oikawa hears himself say, holding back a laugh that instead turns into a fit of chuckles before a button in his mind is pressed and he can’t help but think what he’s even doing. However, this sudden and slight change in his behaviour seems to go unnoticed by the latter who just shakes his head with a small smile.

“’course not, Stupidkawa.” – “Mean!” – “C’mon, let’s walk for a bit unless you want to sit down.” Oikawa nods his head slightly at that as a yes, then waddling behind next to the black-headed.

“I’m just stating the truth, y’know. Well, is there something you want to know in particular?” Firstly, Oikawa just wants to give Hajime a shake of his head before he halts, takes in a breath and tried to form a sentence of the words lying on his tongue.

“What is going to happen to my parents?” It’s the first question that comes to his mind before more are filling his head like tea from a kettle would fill a mug, his voice low and strained.

“I highly believe that Atsumu-sama won’t do anything dumb anytime soon if you give your best. Just don’t make an unnecessary, reckless ruckus, then he’s not able to have anything to turn against you. He may threaten you, it’s like a hobby of his, really, but he won’t just hurt your parents without a foolish reason.” Both relief and worry sink in Oikawa’s bones, he nervously bites his lip and only continues asking when he’s sure there’s nothing more to say from Hajime’s side.

“But what if my best isn’t the expectation I should deliver, what if I’m not good enough?” Obnoxiously, he turns his big, brown eyes to Hajime, who just shakes his head and reassures him that he should try what he can, the improvement won’t come from nothing anyways.

“Here.” Suddenly, the raven-haired boy takes something wrapped in a white serviette out of his pocket, reaching it to Oikawa. Slowly, he takes it, not trying to lessen the grip from his left arm where he still holds his clothes tucked in between his arm and body. “You should eat and give me the clothes and your phone. I’m not gonna do anything to them if you think that.” Oikawa still cocks an eyebrow, trying to manage to pull out his sweater – he begins to wonder why he choose to wear it on such a warm day as yesterday though –, the jeans and shoes without them falling down and scatter on the ground beneath his feet and reaches them to the other, his phone though is still in his hand.

“What exactly will you do to them then?”

“I’ll save them for you, you need them to get out of here such as your name, your _real_ name. If you forget it, it’s basically over. I, for example, forgot mine times ago.” An audible gulp comes from Oikawa, he nods. “But if you’re around the area here and someone asks for your name, you _have_ to answer with the name Atsumu-sama gave you, understood? And I won’t take your phone with me, I’ll just give it enough power to survive for some time. Hide it though, you can never know what the others could think or may do.” Another nod and the brunette opens the small packet carefully, his eyes widening with joy when he sees what’s inside.

“Do you know that milk bread is my favourite food, did you guess it or did you just take the first thing that came into your reach?”, questions Oikawa before he takes a huge bite of one of the few breads.

“I kinda guessed, I’d say. But I dunno, something just told me I should grab them. Thank the kamis I was right, huh? Though you should also eat something notorious and not just milk bread.”

“Yes, mom”, Oikawa hummed, munching on his bread.

“What was that, Trashykawa?” the chocolate-eyed male shudders when he sees the expression on Hajime’s face and remains silent while eating except for a whined ‘you’re so mean’ under a long-drawn breath.

They keep on walking around. Oikawa feels a stash of happiness blooming in his chest, a smile dancing across his lips.

At the same time, however, he thinks he maybe should be scared, frustrated, sorrowful all at once and not happily eating on a path. He can’t avoid it though, his body and mind tell him he doesn’t have to feel like that when he’s around Hajime, a _stranger_. He’s ninety-nine percent sure he’s never even seen a single hair of him in the other world, he yet feels home with him as if they know each other for a long time already, as if they were separated but found each other again, as if they were _friends_ , such good friends that they don’t need words to describe that they’re comfortable and nice around each other although Oikawa and Hajime only met in the damn restaurant a single day ago.

He’s about to ask Hajime about it, if he perhaps knows something about that, but he stops abruptly in his tracks, sheer instantly when he looks at the other who is casually – as if it weren’t dangerous or whatsoever – skidding down thin, slippery looking steps where not even a railing would keep Oikawa from falling down right into the sea, or onto the sharp stones. Whatever comes first.

But he won’t try to find out. Nope. Not even over his dead body.

“I don’t care what you’re about to do now but I’m out. I won’t go down _these_ steps.” A horrified look ghosts over his facial features, his eyes fixing on Hajime as if he’s gone fully insane.

“C’mere, big baby. If I wanted to kill you, I’d have my ways.” Something in his voice tells Oikawa he isn’t even joking, his feet frozen in place, a gulp caught up in his throat with the lump forming.

“Wherever you want to take me to over these steps, tell them – if you want to meet someone – I’m sorry but I still like my life although it’s actual shit right now. Or isn’t there at least another way?”, croaks Oikawa, eyes widened.

_There totally is, your smirk tells it. Dickhead,_ Oikawa thinks to himself, glaring with unease. He nearly spits his thoughts out loud even, contains himself after a moment of thinking though.

“I’ll catch you if you fall. C’mon!”

“I most certainly don’t remember signing up for this!” His undercurrent mingles fear within his voice when he cautiously takes a step onto the stairs, his finger clinging onto the wall though it’s nothing but vacant.

“Nobody can sign up for anything that’ll happen in their lives, that’s just how it is.” Just a few seconds later, Oikawa slips and trips at once, falling down without any given opportunity to hold himself somewhere, to stop the fall. He begins to brace himself for whatever a fall onto stones or the surface of water many feet under where he’s standing may feel like. His eyelids are pressed together hard, air caged in his lungs though he doesn’t know how long this will last, if this is even something useful.

But he has to say he never imagined it being gentle and soft and with the ability to breathe still.

“Didn’t I just tell you I’d catch you?” Hajime sighs with his deep voice, cautiously putting Oikawa on his feet again who sways from left to right at first before he gains his balance again, one hand tightly gripping onto the blue robe. They somehow manage to bring both of them down to the small, wooden platform alive, the brunette feels like he can breathe normally again, leaning against the wall the farthest away from the water.

“T-Thanks.” The black-haired boy is standing in front of the whole time, probably blocking his view.

“Silly”, Hajime utters under his breath, turning around so he can open the door to a room. Inside Oikawa’s first met with hot boilers screeching, vapour gushing out every few seconds with a high-pitched sound that makes every hair stand up, his hands place themselves over his ears automatically. Unknowingly for a few moments, he’s pressing his teeth together, he swears he can hear them cracking under the pressure he’s applying.

Both of the males quickly make their way through this little interior porch, Hajime also seems greatly affected by the noises and they nearly let out cries of pure relief once the door is shut closed with lightning speed behind their backs.

“I’ll never get used to these sounds. It’s a pure wonder Akinori can still hear without much problems”, mumbles Hajime with a short shake of head, guiding them down a long path of stairs which Oikawa at least doesn’t roll down this time. When the latter hears the name of this Akinori guy once again, the words Keiji said a day ago suddenly pop up in his mind. He’s now supposed to be his nephew although he has never heard of that guy.

But why should that be a wonder all of sudden?

Oikawa decides to share these thoughts nevertheless and questions who this guy even is.

“You maybe already figured that he has got something to do with water. Well, Akinori’s practically been in charge of the hot water in the whole onsen since I can possibly think back _._ He doesn’t look older than we are, but he’s still about one hundred years old or something along the line. That’s because he’s a witch, like Atsumu. However, he did something horribly dire I don’t know about exactly and now he can’t leave until he’s got enough to pay his debts. But don’t worry, he’s a nice guy. By the way, I brought you here because you’ll probably need to go down here yourself sometime and I assume Tobio hasn’t showed you the boiler room in such a short period of time.” With that, they reach another door, Hajime knocks thrice with his knuckles and opens it with a creaking sound; this unpleasant noise is at least worlds better than the one they heard upstairs.

“Hajime-kun, what a nice surprise!” Inside, there’s a really young male with dirty-blond hair. Around him are many machines whimpering every once and then. On the floor Oikawa can see black Susuwataris, soot spirits made of soot itself, carrying coals on their small frames sheer easily, throwing them into some sort of fire place on the corner. “He reeks of human so I assume you’re the nephew I’ve never heard ‘bout, Keiji told me. I’m Akinori Konoha. People call me ‘boiler geezer’, ‘kettle geezer’ or Akinori. Nice to meet ya!” Oikawa immediately bows, muttering a small hello. “I don’ bite, don’ worry. And scratch the formalities.”

“Aren’t these coal pieces too heavy for those Susuwataris?”, Oikawa wonders out loud, kneeling down beside them.

“’s not too heavy, don’ worry, kid. There may be a few who don’ get ‘em right on their bodies and get squished, but that’s it.” At once, one of those Sootballs, he hasn’t got a job at all and the coals seem too heavy for the poor guy, comes close to the brown-eyed boy and gently climbs down his leg till he rests peacefully on his thigh. With slightly widened eyes, Oikawa looks down at the black thing, nudging it carefully with his pointer finger. The spirit only nuzzles his body further into the fabric of his clothes, big round eyes staring up at him. Hajime lets out a choked giggle in the background, shaking his head at the Susuwatari’s behaviour.

“What is it doing?”, asks Oikawa, gazing up with big eyes at the witch who amusedly watches what’s happening.

“It obviously likes you. The coals are too heavy for this lil’ guy, you possibly figured, but I don’ wanna kill it, can’ get my heart over it, they’re still living beings. If you want, it’s your spirit now. Don’ worry, they’re easy to take care of and I don’ feel like I have to worry there if it’s with you anyways.” Smiling, Oikawa nods, patting the spirit’s surface.

“What’s the time anyways? I saw the sun peaking brightly from behind the horizon when we entered the boiler room and I think I should bring you back at some point, too, huh?” Oikawa firstly doesn’t even realise he’s the one Hajime talks to, looks up concise while later.

“Why? When do I have to go to work?” Raising an eyebrow, the brown-haired male tilts his head, knowing that he rather wants to just sit here regardless the noises than working hard.

“If the sun just raises like I’m assuming, you’ll begin in about an hour.” With a trifling frown, the other nods, stands up again., ignoring the sudden spikes of pain flaring in his knee with gritted teeth. The pain vanishes as fast as it appears and Oikawa is ceaselessly glad. Just the moment before he can open the door to go back, a hand stops him and he whips around, confused. He punches Hajime lightly on his arm with a glare that nobody would ever consider as scary and walks to the other door Hajime motions to with his hand, an amused grin dancing on his lips.

“Jerk. Why didn’t we take the stairs over there? I wouldn’t have to eschew death by the length of a hair”, Oikawa grumbles when he opens the door to reveal a staircase seemingly going back to the _onsen._

“The other way was pretty much faster by minutes and there would’ve been a rather great chance of us to be been seen if we have taken the stairs there. Now, nobody will care and if someone really asks just tell him you visited Akinori.” He nods, still slightly angry at the spiky-headed and dismisses himself with short goodbyes. Hajime waves just before he engulfs the witch in the room in a conversation, though Oikawa is already too far to make out any logical words, his feet carrying him upstairs to the bathhouse, to his new work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so... uhm... hi? *awkward laughing* I'm a horrible author when it comes to publishing in quite normal time spans  
> Also, I know it's not that thrilling till now forgive meh. It's rather coming in and having IwaOi moments lik the old married couple they are oof


	4. f o u r

“Where the _fuck,_ Seikawa, have you been?” Oikawa flinches the moment he enters the sleeping room for the male workers, met with a furious – yet slightly concerned – gaze of Tobio. In the same moment, the black Susuwatari hides in Oikawa’s clothes, seemingly gone which worries him a bit.

“Have you found- Seikawa! Thank the kamis, I thought you might have died!”, the orange-haired boy suddenly skids in the room too, obvious relief on his face when his shoulders sink as if he’s been under stress for a while now. Oikawa feels guilt boiling in his stomach, but quickly remembers the excuse from Hajime he should tell and quickly exclaims that he visited Akinori, ‘his uncle’, with hope in his mind that he sounds believable, at least to some wee extent. Shouyou basically lectures him to not disappear like that again and Tobio just answers with a hollow, exasperated sigh, rubbing his brow with a shake of head, his golden earrings dangling at his sides and reflections of the sun outside bring shiny, twinkling dots one the metal.

“Firstly, Shou, you’re spending too much time with Koushi, you’re picking up his behaviour”, Oikawa may be imagining things, but he clearly sees a soft smile tugging at the corners of Tobio’s lips when he speaks and it honestly make him seem happy and carefree for once until he turns his icy stare to the brown-headed once again, “and secondly, come on, we have to prepare to clean a bit plus we’ll show you the basics.”

“I don’t think Kou will like to hear this, y’know”, Shouyou starts with a smirk on his lips, his head turned to the dark-haired male.

“You won’t!” Out of the corners of his eyes, he sees that Tobio actually pales a bit though it’s far from evident on a quick glance and also since his skin has a paler note anyways.

“Oh, I will. I will tell him if you refuse to cuddle again, it’s lonely on the futon”, the shorter whines, ducking when Tobio is about to hit him but somehow contains himself.

“You’re such an idiot, boke”, he mutters under his breath, tugs his hands in the pockets of his clothes and rushes forward to walk ahead. Oikawa silently wonders if it’s because of the consoled blush on his cheeks, but shakes his head mentally at that note before both he and Shouyou speed up to be about as fast as Tobio.

“Please don’t tell me we’re assigned to one of the big tubs.” The orange-headed pouts all of sudden. Tobio just shakes his head with a visible roll of eyes, pointing to another, smaller one at the other side of the corridor and an almost inaudible, relieved hum is heard. Oikawa doesn’t bother asking, trying to go unnoticed with his own slightly amiss expression.

It turns out that running forth and back, crouched too with a damn towel you’re forced to rub over the floor, is way more complicated and harder than Oikawa could’ve ever guessed. On top of that is the fact that he is maybe just half as fast as Shouyou and Tobio, earning snarky comments here and there from the actually obviously amused latter though he’s wearing that stoic, inscrutable expression nonetheless. The shortest in the group seems even more experienced, running with immense energy just at this early hour of the morning. However, he seems to notice Oikawa’s discouragement, perhaps even sensing that, and visibly fakes a faux speed all of sudden, as if he slows down that rapidly in the matter of mere moments naturally.

Cleaning a normal sized tub is still a hard job, the brown-haired male thinks after a good amount of time, a piquant pain flashing through his knee. He’s sure he could just tipple over when a certain harsh wave hits him, but he contains himself, trying to seem nonchalant in his gait when he runs forth and back, limping ever so slightly while Tobio just finishes the tub eventually. Oikawa’s not sure if the other two can tell he’s struggling the more time flies by, but he swore he won’t stop nor slow down too much when they began cleaning, still doesn’t say a word and pushes himself further, like he always uses to. At some point Oikawa heaves a heavy breath which comes near the sound of a shallow wheeze as he lets it out, his stamina is coming to an end soon. Oikawa considers a reason is that he hasn’t ever been forced to run around like a maniac only to wipe off dirt of some floor he never cared about, nor too fond about sports for a little over one year.

“Let’s take a short break.” Blinking with sheer confusion, Oikawa swears he breaks his neck when he turns his head to look at the dark-headed male, the words still lingering in the air right in front of him. He avoids looking at Oikawa intently, the other’s sure of it.

“We’re nearly finished, today’s a good day.” Promptly, Shouyou plops down on the floor on the threshold of the room, stretching his arms above his head with a pretty carefree expression. The slightly bleached out red gown leaves him looking like a pure marshmallow, not only because he’s cute himself either way, but because the clothes are at least a size too big for his lean, compared to others, short body.

“Don’t say that too early, you’ve no idea what Atsumu-sama has planned other than that”, amends Tobio rather coldly before he leans against the wall, arms crossed, instead of sitting down, or lying on the floor as Oikawa does breathlessly.

“Where do you just have this stamina from?”, he mutters meekly, actually voicing a thought absentmindedly rather than really asking out of free will. But Oikawa, for once, doesn’t care that he just spilled out his thoughts he normally has at 3 am and is even a bit inquisitive of the answer. When he hears an amused chuckle though, he opens his eyes he doesn’t remember closing and glances at the orange-haired boy with a tilted head and raised eyebrow.

“You’re asking the wrong ones here. Tobio over there has been here for a longer time than I’ve been and, if I can remember, was always on the sporty side. Don’t you see his lean built and muscles? Anyways, I played volleyball before I came here and was, too, sporty. This is one of the only things I know from my life before this though, but there’re people who know even less, some can’t even recall anything. Well, and I often get told that my stamina is vast and I should share.” He shakes his head, smiling with a supressed sadly looking smile.

“If you ever find a way please do it and gimme a good amount.” Oikawa poorly tries to hide the whiny undercurrent, lips yet pursed into a sincere grin. Even Tobio’s lips pulls upwards as Shouyou starts laughing completely genuinely, heartfully. The thought of forgetting his normal life is weighing heavily in his stomach though. He pushes these feelings out of his mind for the time being, or for when they’ll get relevant.

“After you’ve done this cleaning over myriad times though I can only assure you it’s gonna get better and easier only, try to be a bit blither for now too.”

“I assume you haven’t really practised sport before, have you?” Tobio is side-eyeing him whilst he’s also gliding down the wooden walls to sit on the floor eventually. There isn’t really much to clean anymore, Oikawa realises at the same time, just the corner of the room is still dusted with a thin layer of dirt, the tub entirely finished.

“I played volleyball, had been for years actually.” Oikawa sits up, absentmindedly rubbing his right knee with his fingers gently. “I was a setter, a really good one, many people told me. We once nearly got a place in the spring tournament two years ago.” He stops after quieting down.

“I’m waiting for the but”, murmurs Shouyou nearly at an inaudible volume, eyes trained on Oikawa pretty worriedly, sadly even though he doesn’t know what occurred to him just yet.

He’s really a sunshine, always happy, blithe and genuine, but he could really engross himself in such problems too and although Oikawa hasn’t known him for long, he’s sure the boy shouldn’t put that much into it, it could end direly.

“In the finals of the prefectures, however, my knee just – how do I explain it?” Oikawa tries to find the right words, struggling obviously. “My right knee was injured anyway, probably hurt it during some PE lessons in middle school, but I’m honest when I say I can’t remember shit from then and I guess I strained it too much while playing at the maximum. Then I just collapsed in the middle of the game, I couldn’t take that sudden, _anything_ but wee pain.” Oikawa rubs his brow, swiping away some strands of hair only to let them fall in place again. The memory starts playing evidently in front of his eyes once again, the pain in his knee and the guilt and sadness flashing through his veins for a moment. He closes his eyes shortly, abandoning the feelings and thought from his mind.

“I know this’ll sound stupid and everything _and please don’t hit me like Tobio’ll do_ , but I’m sorry. I could’ve never imagined a life without sports back then.” Shouyou shakes his head slightly before he sighs softly, pushing himself up again and concisely pats down the wrinkles of his clothes. “But unless it’s not starting to be a setback for you or hindering you in any form, running around like that should be fine for now, it’s actually good practice.” He grinned. “Let’s finish the cleaning already, not that Daichi starts scolding us. Again.”

When Shouyou said cleaning the tubs and floors of the bathroom he really did mean it, Oikawa concludes as he falls onto his futon later that day.

The futon itself isn’t the best, it’s a bit too hard and yet Oikawa feels the ground strongly under his body, if he concentrates enough, he’ll maybe even feel the small stigmas littering the wood. It’s not that they would be bugging him to much or blinking like red lights every time he sees or feels them, but if you were as done as Oikawa that very moment, you’d probably complain too, or at least in your head. He’s not sure if he can still move any bone or muscle in his body, let alone feeling them except the things around him, is not sure if he’s ever been that glad to lie down on a futon under which the floor is so piquantly present nonetheless.

“You sure you didn’t get hit by a train or something?”, another worker asked with a slight smile – whether as a soft gesture or drowned in mischief can’t really be told by Oikawa. In the lunch break he already got derogatory comments; some mentioned him being too weak for anything here and he should just be fired as quickly as possible – the moment he plopped down on his own set up futon right next to Oikawa himself, who isn’t really able to help but grin at the male, shaking his head at the obviously rhetorical question.

He’s young with soft features endearing his face. The sun beginning to set in the back is drawing shadows and several colourful lights across his body. His hair is a shiny grey, eyes so gentle Oikawa could detect his own mom in them, a teary layer shortly washing over his eyes before he breathes in heavily, returning the smile the other sends him with full lips, a mole is sitting right under his left eye as the only small blemish on the rather naturally paler hue of skin.

“I’m Koushi also known as Kou and one of the few overseers and workers at the same time around. You’re the new one Shouyou told me about, right? Seikawa? I’m sorry if I got your name wrong.” Koushi shakes his head slightly, pulling his legs in a snug criss-crossed position.

“Yes, that’s me. Nice to meet you, Koushi.” Oikawa decides to sit up against his body protesting with every movement to greet the other properly with a little bow of head which earns a chuckle and the same gesture by the grey-headed.

“How was your first day? Stressing the hell outta you?” Koushi leans his head in the palm of his right hand, eyeing the new worker curiously. His alluring amber eyes contain something mysterious yet gentle and calm in them, Oikawa is reminded of home every time he sends a short glance at them, not enduring more time because only the word _home_ holds his parents in it and it painfully shakes through him as if he’s shot by a lightning bolt. He tries to hide it, poorly though, with lying down on the futon again, avoiding the other’s gaze.

Then Oikawa sighs deeply. “Tobio surely stresses enough, I’m not sure if I can feel my limbs tomorrow, or anything in general, but as long as Shouyou is also around, I’ll guess survive. They are a strange yet effective combination, no wonder they’re paired up honestly.” He’s meanwhile fiddling with the hem of his nightgown, plain shorts and shirt.

“Shouyou’s truly a ray of sunshine. I dunno but it feels like the atmosphere around him holds neither grief nor anger the whole time over. I’ve only seen him getting really furious a few times ‘til now and lemme tell you, it’s terrifying. These mocking and playful fights with Tobio are _nothing_ against it, thus don’t rile him up please.” There is a certain wave of shivers crawling up his body. Of course, he’s only seen the cheerful, happy and caring guy but imagining him becoming angry isn’t something he wants to see in particular if he’s completely honest.

Oikawa glances up at Koushi again, met with some sort of amused expression which makes his eyebrow lift, a questioning look settling on his face. The latter brings his hand to his chest, nudging him – or rather something that’s on top of him and Oikawa looks there more than just confusedly. But a few mere moments later a smile curls his lips when he recognises the Susuwatari cuddled between the wrinkles of the shirt; it has built a small nest there without him noticing.

“Did it escape Konoha? Or were you down there? ‘cause I think I know this lil’ guy.” Koushi leans carefully over Oikawa, mellifluously brushing the Sootball with his right pointer. The black ball though just squirms against the surface of the shirt and tries to hide between the wrinkles fast, a bit flustered even; Oikawa holds back to not coo too loudly.

“It just kinda did the same it does now, except this lil’ Sootball made itself comfortable on my knees.”

The grey-haired boy hums, amused. “There’s always been one of them that’s just behaved a bit different. It’s been clingy even, but comforting in a way too. Whenever something was wrong it would try to comfort whoever needed it. It’s doing something similar now too, you see.” A chuckle passes Koushi’s lips, his head shaking. “But whenever you feel down, have something on your heart, have something bugging you or just want a hug I’m here, we all are. Well, a few workers are true jerks, not gonna lie, but the ones you’ve met ‘till now ‘ll stand by your side. Except for the ones during lunch, I told them to stop but they genuinely didn’t give a fuck. Aka this is me welcoming you in the onsen.”

“Thank you.” It sounds so honest that Koushi just simply waves off the other words that are daring to leave Oikawa, ruffling his hair before he blows out the candle he lit during their conversation and lies down as well as the other has been the whole time. Oikawa deftly turns around with the Sootball now in his palm which it is nuzzling gently, missing Koushi’s hidden pained, sad smile behind his back.

  * ○•○•○•



The night’s cooling down the air to a balm degree. It isn’t even summer and the heat can make anyone run to the next shade already. Thus, Oikawa is more than generous for the mild temperature of the darker time of the day. With the moonlight illuminating the sleeping room of the male workers slightly through the mostly drawn blinds, he is calmly lying on the futon, hand absentmindedly rubbing circles on the small, sleeping figure on his chest. Every then and now, a breeze flows through the one opened shoji in the corner of the room.

Oikawa has his blanket kicked off since he suddenly woke up in the middle of the night, his phone he had hid under one of the loose wooden planks saying it was around 1:36 am around that time. However, he couldn’t be sure if the time runs by at the same pace as in his world, or if it’s the same overall. He can only judge by the darkness and the soft moonlight of the black sky.

He wants nothing more but to sleep, really. Though whenever he closes his eyes and drifts off a bit, he firstly feels the throbbing pain in his knee he’s ignored for the whole day and secondly the aching in his heart he hasn’t even realised is there. On top of his chest he feels the Susuwatari rubbing its wee head against him soothingly, he’d even say worriedly, every time he jolts his eyes open again. Oikawa feels bad, honestly and throughout-ly.

“Oikawa?”

The chestnut-headed doesn’t even react at first, just looking at the ceiling which comes to be one of the most interesting things while doing literally nothing but whether trying to stay awake or fall back asleep – he’s just not able to tell.

“Hey! Oikawa!” The whispering got more frantic and a bit louder too, something twitched in Oikawa’s mind. “I know you’re not awake, dipshit.”

“Mean”, he mumbles at a standard answer before he realises what just happened and abruptly sits up, looking around, slightly scared. “Where’s there?” In the same moment of processing and trying to find a weapon which becomes the thin blanket, he rapidly catches the Sootball before it lands on the ground eventually – Oikawa nearly lets out a sigh of relief when he just catches the black guy in time, it’s obviously shaken for a second.

“Goddamnit, it’s me.”

“Hajime?” He hears a sigh.

“No, the tooth fairy. Yes, it’s me. I figured you couldn’t sleep for the last two hours, your phone is literally running because of my energy and I felt something draining though it really doesn’t affect anything I can and could do, I just recognised it after I wondered for a minute.” Oikawa shrinks in himself when the thought of waking a tired Hajime crosses his mind and he’s just about to apologise when the other beats him to it. “Don’t apologise. It’s fine, or haven’t I said it just a few seconds prior? Anyways, come out of here, I’ll show you something.”

A small uneasiness settles uncomfortably in the pit of Oikawa’s stomach. The latter hasn’t shown his anything but simple kindness for the time he’s known him for, he even feels at peace around him as if there’s nothing bothering him, but it’s in the middle of the night and Hajime isn’t a really high ranked worker or whatsoever for nothing.

_But he seriously couldn’t be a serial killer, or could he?_ Oikawa shakes his head mentally, dumbly, at the thought alone and scrambles out of the room with tender, inaudible steps, making beeline to the opened shoji in the corner. _But what if he has horrific news about Tooru’s parents?_

In the same moment, he clumsily trips over the steps he must take to go to Hajime on the small meadow. The latter rushes forward to just hold him up in time, muscles apparent under the fabric of his same coloured clothes he also wore in the early morning hours, however, these are ones obviously new ones. _How many stacks of the same clothes does this guy seriously have?_

“I perhaps said that I won’t ever let you fall but do me a favour and don’t take it too seriously so that I have to catch you literally ever time, you’re making my life harder and shorter by doing that.” Hajime releases a long-drawn breath while gently helping Oikawa stand upright again. The brown-eyed boy sways for the first moment though, gripping on Hajime’s shoulder as if it were his lifeline and straightens himself afterwards on his own, silently thanking the latter a thousand times.

Oikawa really hates himself then.

In the first moment, he’s a bit scared (and fears to face Hajime, fuck his sometimes scared-y cat being) and in the next he’s at complete ease without thinking twice, even feels safe and not threatened in any way. The unease of where Hajime leads them is still there though.

“I know you don’t have the easiest time right now”, rings his deep voice through the night while they’re walking in a contended pace. “Honestly, I really wish I could be assuring you humbly, but I’m not able to. Relax as long as you can, stay back from fights, be as calm and collected as you’re able to be and don’t do anything stupid you might still want to do.” Hajime throws a few side-glances at his companion, who still nervously fiddles with the hem of his long shirt while listening intently to every word the latter says. He can’t pinpoint if Hajime talks out of own experience or out of the one of different people. However, the way the black-haired boy spoke these words sound like bare proof that this has apparently happened sometime. Oikawa’s lips curl into a slight, sincere smile when he thinks about the fact that the latter said this just for him with concern slightly lacing his rich voice.

“Thank you.”

Hajime stops for a moment when he says, “For what? For worrying? For caring? Oikawa, of course I do, I understand why you didn’t flee when time was still an apparent thing. Dumbass”, with a faint grin and a short, quick series of shaking his head.

“No, seriously, thank you for everything till now. And before we argue over this until dusk, you’ll just lead me to whatever you want to show me.” Oikawa just waves it off, even though he felt happiness in his stomach. He also doesn’t pretend to hear Hajime’s muttered “you seem smarter when you’re sleep deprived. Try to change that.” a few moments later. Crickets are chirring in the rather high reed next to the path they are walking, the moon basically giving them all the light they need to see their surroundings yet so faint, at least enough to make things out. The other animals, humans and creatures are seemingly all soundly asleep, thus the boys are literally all alone. Oikawa silently agrees that it seems a bit eerie with himself, not seeing, hearing or even smelling any other being for that time span.

“We’re here”, Hajime suddenly whispers when he abruptly halts in his tracks; Oikawa’s just about to crash fully into him but luckily just stops in time.

“And that is where?” He tries to be as quiet as possible.

“Just look.” Cautiously, Oikawa wanders next to the slightly shorter boy instead of staying behind him and immediately gasps silently when he sees an incredibly beautiful landscape in front of him. They are at the cliff again, but at a completely different location than usually, or from the views Oikawa’s seen until now which clearly isn’t much. The moon reflects itself in the dark, nearly black, water at the ground, weak waves crashing at the few stones beneath them in the middle of the sea. Sometimes, there are clouds visible in sky when you look around, sometimes it’s just night-black with bright dots twinkling at random places. One long, fat line though is entirely black with a huge diversity of colours surrounding it.

“It’s absolutely beautiful.” Oikawa isn’t even just looking anymore, he’s gaping at the stars, the water, the stones, the few (big) fish, the waves, the lights, the clouds, the stars – or simply said the everything.

“This here is one of those few places basically nobody has ever found here – and this is a real rarity. When I have to shutout the life in the onsen I also come here. Or when I just need time to think. Also, when I need time for myself and just myself. I often let my legs just dangle over the edge and stare straight to the sea you see here. This place is breath-taking whether night or day, whether the sun is out or rain is heavily pouring down.” Hajime plops down onto the soft grass, sitting criss-crossed with his chin in his right palm. The other also sits down, carefully though considering the fact they’re very near the edge, and pulls his knees to his chest immediately, his arms protectively around them – it’s become a rather unpopular habit he nearly doesn’t have anymore.

“Why do you show it to me though?”, Oikawa askes softly and quietly at the same time, his words are nearly not even reaching the latter; Hajime still catches every single letter.

“I wanted you to have a place to go back to, too, I guess. A place where you can just be alone, a place where you can forget for a moment, to let go. I know how hard it is, especially in the beginning. But there will always come this time you have to get up and face reality again, and I don’t lie when I say that I just want to take that away from you. I hope I did this in some way with showing you this location here. Please don’t be forced to come here just because I said so though, it’s a decision you have to make by yourself.”

There is a short pause, Oikawa is silenced because of the thoughtfulness of the other, the care he shows him. He swears Hajime could hear his heart pounding, or melting.

_Can you hear your heart melting even?_

Anyways, Hajime, on the other side, seems to be fighting over something in his mind, with something, as if he wants to say something still, but doesn’t know how to voice it exactly. Oikawa remains completely patient in the meantime, his head placed on his knees, eyes slightly lidded.

“You parents are also nearby if you want to see them. I won’t force you to anything though”, Hajime adds fast, a bit incoherent before he glances at the spoken boy, who looks up with wide eyes.

_He could go and see his parents to look how they are. But they’re pigs now. Do they even recognise him? Or simply_ know _him anymore?_ Oikawa isn’t sure if he would be able to handle that thought face to face with them, if they really didn’t know him and shot it, just like they did in the restaurant.

_And Oikawa doesn’t even want to know how many other people got turned into pigs already._

He just has a feeling.

He shakes his head, no, with a mixture of a frown, guilt, sadness and a strange smile on his face. Hajime nods understandingly, sighing. Carefully, the latter extends his hand from its previous place and rubs circles on the other’s arm, his face slightly turned to the opposite direction. Firstly, Oikawa actually jumps from his seat, bewildered, before he turns his look to Hajime and smiles, trying to relax. The chill breeze begins picking up speed again, tousling Oikawa’s hair more than it was before. With his right hand which arm isn’t occupied by soothing rubs of the other boy, he slowly wipes them out of his eyes, rubbing them afterwards with a long-drawn yawn.

Then, Hajime breaks the silence, “Let’s get going. You have a long day ahead and haven’t slept much or at all.”

“What about you?” The brown-headed stretches his arms over his head and stands up, wrapping his arms around his body because the breeze might’ve gotten a bit cooler than before.

“Don’t worry. I’ve gone through worse.” Nope, this really doesn’t assure Oikawa in the slightest and worry clouds his vision when he throws another glance at the other, who leads the way back, lips in a thin line. However, he decides to stay silent, only noting it in his mind with the way to the place there.

“I know I thanked you already, but I can’t do more than this so thank you”, says Oikawa softly when they reach the _onsen_ again, rather tightly smiling. Hajime waves it off once again before he turns, wishing the other a sweet night, or what is left of it and stops immediately as he feels long arms around his body, shortly pulling him flush against the younger boy, smiling.

“Good night.” And Oikawa leaves, a warm feeling bubbling in his chest, but nothing concerning, just warmth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyo!  
> first of all, oof i'm sorry for any mistakes, my ass was really lazily doing the proof-reading
> 
> oikawa finally made it to cleaning the tubs and his first actual night here wohoo  
> ik that suga is prbly one of the most caring people in there, but i decided also to give hinata this trait - i hope you don't mind too much (i personally think it's sweet okay-)
> 
> i also added some more tags
> 
> and yes, hajime's the tooth fairy. pshhhht
> 
> (wow, i'm just about to publish when a damn bee flies around in my room. it's night goddamnit. go to sleep, bee, BYE)
> 
> big fat thanks for reading, leaving kudos, comments and bookmarks!


	5. f i v e

“Why can’t I just have a pause? What even is this? My knee fucking hurts and I’m _this_ close to collapsing sometime soon. Ats- _you know who I mean_ is the biggest idiot I met until now.” Oikawa huffs, flops down on his seat, ready to pick up his chopsticks and dig into his long-awaited lunch – just so Oikawa can note it, it’s two pm already. Two pm. He’s a growing male who needs food and also behaves like he’s on his period. Shouyou giggles from behind his own bowl for a short moment at his friend’s antics before that concerning gaze sets which has preoccupied the younger’s face for a while now in again, hand outstretched to rub against the elder’s knee carefully, hoping it will help even though it undoubtedly won’t do much.

“Maybe go to Atsumu-sama and say you aren’t able to work that hard with that pain. It’s been going like this since you came here which is over one week ago. _One_ week you’ve spent in pain and it doesn’t shrink but gets only worse. If he doesn’t even try to move a finger to help you, I’ll just go and cut off his head instead.” Shouyou grumbles something different under his breath after his speech and fills his mouth with meat instead, chewing with a sullen expression.

“You will what?” The orange-haired boy chokes horribly, eyes widened at the sudden voice coming from behind him. Oikawa halts in his movement himself. “You can’t even reach his chest, boke.” Then, he just glares pointedly at Tobio, pinching him with his chopsticks – “Hey, dumbass!” – before he continues to stuff food into his mouth, dejected on the tiniest level.

“Is that place still empty? Every other table is either reserved or ‘occupied’ already”, a familiar black-headed suddenly approaches them and does quotation marks with one hand while talking, a quiet sigh reaches the other’s ears emitting from him as well. The boys turn their heads to the speaking person whose voice isn’t nearly able to be heard and just nod with inviting smiles, signalising Keiji to sit down. He thanks them with a sigh and look to the other workers and begins eating, too, silence emerging from them with a short interruption by Keiji – “Sorry for being so absent most of the time now, too. I’m hungry and tired and in need of peace.” – which they all wave off with shaking heads.

Oikawa can’t think of talking now anyways and is glad and grateful for the pause of the constant speaking in between the working hours. He doesn’t really have a great privacy and peace which evidently does bug him, has been more for the last couple of days even. Whenever he does find time though, he fishes out his phone from the secret place he deposited it – it’s under a loose wooden plank next to the wall furthest of the door where nobody really goes to in the sleeping room – and looks through photos and messages. After he hides it again with a weighty heart, he always fears he’ll forget this self, the self he came here as days ago. A few memories that are usually completely clear began becoming a bit hazy, his name still highly prominent in his brain still which at least takes a bit of concern away, though just a wee bit.t

“Earth to Seikawa?”

Oikawa really fears, but doesn’t show it any way, too scared of the outcome. The others basically live only with their, from Atsumu given, names and don’t really complain about it, just take it as it is. Maybe they had a similar phase times ago, Oikawa considers, but shoos that thought out of his mind rather fast. A bitter taste set on his tongue as he eats more, he halts, drinking water instead.

Often, Oikawa catches himself having these trails of thoughts, that he may never get back to his actual home which makes his entire skin run icy, shivers wrecking his body. Surely, he has got hope and the will, but finds himself forgetting more and more as the time flies by.

“Seikawa! We’re talking to you.”

Said boy looks up instantly when the voice reaches not only his ears but also his brain and swallows his bites of food before apologising quietly, and moreover embarrassed. He also isn’t used to his new name, clearly and obviously, not reacting more often than not when he’s not entirely taking part of the conversation with his mind at least. A mental note he took when he first set a foot in here there was that it should stay like that. Looking up when mentioned doesn’t sound too bad though, too, on second thought and Oikawa shakes his head inwardly before turning his attention towards Shouyou, who’s been trying to get his attention for quite a while now – Oikawa silently admits he heard the first calling of his name, but was too deep in thoughts then to react.

“What?” He’s a little lucky that Shouyou is a cheerful person and dismisses such dumb mistakes fairly easily, he’s ninety-eight percent sure that Tobio would’ve been a whole other story there, depends on which mood Oikawa decides to bug him in.

“We were talking about the fest in three weeks – the five hundredth celebration of reopening the Aburaya. You know how important this will be for the kamis and gods and mages and all the others.”

Oikawa has also learned a few things since he came here. The so called _Aburaya_ is nothing but the _onsen_ under the name the ancestors once called it.

Five hundred – specifically four-hundred-ninety-nine – years ago there was a huge fight between the two most experienced witches around where even gods and kamis participated on the side they thought was the right one. Perhaps there weren’t even right ones as the many writers painted it to be – like on a test in schools where to whether choose this or that. In the end, Atsumu won and got to be the new owner of the bathhouse such as higher up for countless other things. Nobody exactly knows what happened all those years ago, but there are heavy rumours of outstanding mages cheating horribly when the end had occurred – it was like an unwritten but still very existing law that no other witch or mage shall intervene directly in a fight of two other of their kind and yet some seemingly did, presumably attacking the loosing mage straight. Atsumu’s participant lost, doubtless, coming away with their life hanging on a thin string only. It’s unknown to everybody but the winner himself if they are still alive, running around or hiding in the middle of them or living a normal life or dropped dead a few minutes, hours, days, weeks or years after the fight.

To celebrate Atsumu’s win, many gods, kamis, mages, witches and other kinds of creatures decided to commemorate that with a festivity each year which happens to be a centennial this year on top, meaning more guest, meaning more work, meaning more money in the end.

Oikawa’s body still begins protesting instantly when the thought of more work than usually crosses his mind. His body may adapted a bit to the circumstances and the previously completely sore muscles cope with the stress and work, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t out of breath every time he lays down on his thin futon after work shortly before midnight at best to ‘shine and rise’, as Shouyou quotes it oh so cheerily, right after the sun peeks through the shojis of the sleeping room. Since they greatly adjust their working time to the sun, the time they must get up becomes later a tad with every passing day, which the workers apparently realise more and more, because it was after June 21st already. On the other hand, it means that the days get longer because the actual working hours don’t differ from longer summer days, working until late in the night which also isn’t the best option.

“And we wanted to ask you if you like to go to the feast with us after work. Only if you want to of course, no one’s forcing you to anything, it’d be nice though”, continues the orange-head with a blinding yet shy smile towards Oikawa.

“Keiji comes even.” All of sudden, a certain, very familiar, grey-haired overseer named Koushi plops down on a seat at their table, speaking enthusiastically before slurping his noodles with a grin. At the same time, the whole table begins guffawing at the antics and behaviour of their friend – literally, Oikawa is scared for a second before the laughing of the table stops, his bowl tightly in his hands, confused look swirling in his chocolate eyes. He has never once seen a table laughing.

“What is that supposed to mean?”, asks Keiji from the other end of the table, completely unfazed by that, but having another expression on his face which isn’t that fitting for his words even if it’s only noticeable in the slightest. At first.

To say Oikawa is confused is an understatement, but who would’ve thought that the tough guy, who’s an excellent actor, by the way, would pout like the brown-eyed boy would do himself mixed with an immature frown when the others start teasing him.

“Yuuji makes him soft like a marshmallow”, chimes Koushi happily with a smirk granted by his mischievous mannerisms that tend to pop up at a rather unpredictable pattern before merging with his former attitude. If Oikawa didn’t know better, he’d say Koushi was a perfect mom to handle his children while fighting or arguing, but also in contributing there.

“He does _not_. I’m a tough guy with a never-ending resting bitch-face”, grumbles Keiji, obviously regretting sitting down at his current place to eat at least at this point now. Oikawa grins amused, but keeps himself out of this conversation rather than intruding – it’s funny either way and he’s engrossed in his noodles too – he doesn’t particularly want to speak with a completely full mouth.

“He _so_ does. Imma say this, I already hear the wedding bells.” Keiji blushes, Oikawa just laughs alongside his friends – or that’s at least what he guesses he can call these persons – and Koushi looks like he wants to high-five himself. Oikawa doesn’t even doubt the fact he totally would.

Other than that, it’s a completely normal lunch filled with laughing, jokes thrown around here and there, comments made with filled mouths and Keiji trying to disappear into thin air at the mention of Yuuji.

Yuuji is apparently a beautiful kami, having inherited the traits of an elf as well like his mother. Koushi tells Oikawa he’s a total goofball actually, but so soft for Keiji that he isn’t surprised Yuuji wants to take him to his own home at the festival a few weeks ahead. The kami had asked for all of their permission first and gladly got it, Koushi being the proud parent welcoming his practically-son-in-law with open arms which always makes Yuuji blush terribly until the tip of his pointy ears.

If it weren’t for Daichi, the head overseer – nobody actually knew how they should actually call him and came to this title after a while – suddenly appearing out of nowhere, visibly distressed, the way would’ve been calm and serene which is a first to Oikawa. Well, would’ve be.

The grey-haired male jumps from his seat immediately the moment he sees Daichi approaching the table where they are sitting, taking his boyfriend’s head in his palms and tries to calm him down as he also begins to feel nervous. Daichi looks worriedly at him, carefully taking his hands from his face to hold them tightly and gulps quietly, thus only Koushi takes note of it.

“Atsumu-sama wants to talk to you and he didn’t sound very pleasant to, the utter opposite actually.” There’s a moment of complete silence, neither of the boys say anything, not really daring to when the news sinks into their brain.

Atsumu’s that kind of person who only talks to people if downright needed. For example, when someone should get a higher rank or doesn’t do his job well enough and needs a speech that will surely petrify them to their bone mark. But also, when someone commits something horrible. And by the sound and look of Daichi it seems to be the latter one although this just doesn’t fit in right.

Then, the addressed person sways ever so slightly, his friends already about to run to their friend before he catches himself with the help of Daichi. There’s a hidden anxious, nervous glint in his eyes as he lets out a long-drawn breath, gripping Daichi’s hands tightly.

“Did he mention why he wanted to see me?” Daichi shakes his head sadly, biting his lower lip. Koushi already knows that it has to be a big number if his lover acts like this – concerned and even frightened for nobody but Koushi and his wellbeing.

“You didn’t do anything, right, Kou? Nothing wrong, am I right? _Please_ ”, whispers Shouyou when he stands up, walking up to the grey-headed to fist his hand in his clothes. Meekly, Koushi waves it off, closing his amber eyes to hide a sheer glint of worry and fear before the caring accent appears again, unease yet visible on his features.

“He’s not gonna hurt me, Shou, don’t get your knickers in a twist.” Koushi ruffles his bright orange hair carefully, assures him with a light tap on his shoulder.

“But you’re always so cheerful and caring. Why would he harm you? What could he possibly do to you?” The moment those words surprisingly forming sentences in this puzzling, nervous time span leave Oikawa’s throat, he immediately regrets it when he looks among his friends who are looking at him apprehensive glances and he can’t do anything more, but rant a murmur of ‘sorry’ with lowered head.

“Kou never does anything against the rules, so he’ll be fine, y’all.” None of the boys are sure if Daichi says that rather to calm himself down lest he doesn’t have to remain that dejected instead of his acquiesced, stern yet caring, docile self or actually for the others since all of them look like they just faced one of the most horrific things. “I have to bring him to Atsumu-sama now though.” Koushi excuses himself then, grabbing his boyfriend’s hand again, when he leaves, he’s sickly pale as if there actually _is_ something up, but nobody but him knows of this at that very moment.

The day passes by in a horribly sluggish pace. With every new room Oikawa is assigned to clean with Shouyou and Tobio if he doesn’t have to run around somewhere different – mostly on the second floor, the _niten_. Even his aching muscles don’t quite interrupt his trail of rather concerning thoughts which consume not only his socialising skills such as his reflexes but also his entire brain which just gives him a massive headache at some point. The firstly dull pain quickly spready in his whole head and prevents him from doing either the cleaning or thinking and he really tries his best for it to be the latter at last.

However, before Oikawa can actually ascertain that aspect, he finds himself lying on his merely rolled out futon, collapsed after the whole day, his mind replaying thoughts over thoughts and the whole day at the same time.

Oikawa honestly isn’t one to make weird or wounding assumptions quickly, but he’s recognised a pattern in the work of the other worker and himself with his newly won friends which he can’t just ignore that simply so he started to find a reason (that he’s still lagging nonetheless).

While the other workers actually have time to joke around a bit or for a short break such as Oikawa also had on his very first day cleaning those damn tubs and rooms, he, Shouyou, Keiji such as Tobio, Daichi and Koushi at some point too just have more to do. Be it more cleaning in a smaller time span, sharing news faster than before or simply more hours – though this isn’t as noticeable as the other things and maybe also just a conclusion of the previous things in hindsight.

It all started a few days prior, maybe two days after Oikawa started really working in the _onsen_. It doesn’t seem that anyone’s picked that up such as he’s done. He came to this pretty fast actually, just comparing to others. A thing that could have an impact there though is that neither Shouyou and Tobio nor Koushi, Daichi and Keiji are close to their colleagues, which Oikawa can understand to some extent. There are the ones that surely aren’t the nicest most of the time or just too shy thus they vanish when it comes to gathering bigger or smaller crowds.

A thing he keeps a bit quiet about is the fact that he’s rather certain that Keiji also was like this at some point while working here, but he’s a good proof that people can either change, warm up or find nice people that like you as the person they are even though a majority of humans just has vast signs with ‘Fuck you’ nicely displayed on their foreheads.

But Diamonds are rare to find after all.

“Seikawa!” The addressed boy looks up, stirring slightly and awakes from a light slumber he’s fallen into to search for the source of speaker, a tiny bit startled. In no time he sees Shouyou coming up to him with two bowls and a small, caring smile. “Don’t forget to eat even if you can probably pass out any moment. Again. Here.” The brown-haired boy thanks him gratefully, his stomach suddenly growling when the beautiful smell reaches his nostrils, and he starts eating the ramen. Shouyou has a bowl by himself with the difference that his is nearly empty already.

“Where are Tobio and Keiji?” The absence of these two only gets prominent when Oikawa looks around and sees neither the younger nor the older among the people and he doubts that they’re in the kitchen to eat.

With a slurp, Shouyou answers in a lower voice, “ _You know who I mean_ gave them more work again. Exhaustion is going to eat them up if this continues, but I can’t really just go up there and blurt out what’s on my mind, huh?”

“You noticed it, too?”, speaks Oikawa silently, eyes widened. Before he can form another trail of thoughts, the other starts speaking up, careful to check the others in the room if they’re listening.

“I noticed it right at the beginning. Firstly, it really wasn’t much, just smaller extra tasks here and there, I also merely picked that up. Then it also started with Keiji and not just Koushi and the latter was even more preoccupied with work. When I already thought that it was because of the fest soon – which would’ve been rather pointless so early so I don’t even go farther in this direction – yet it changed again when also we got assigned to do more. Now I’m honestly just at a dead end. Maybe it has got something to do with Koushi. I don’t really know. Why us? Maybe it’s me?” The smaller boy rubs his palms over his face, pressing the ball of his thumb tightly against his wet eyes for a moment and collects his breath. He just rushes with his answer at the end, all words bundled up in one single breath which Oikawa has slight problems catching up what he is saying. Emotions are also suddenly a bit all over the place.

“Hug?” Shouyou nods, long arms engulfing his frame.

Shouyou may not seem like the smartest person out there, but he can be really observing when he wants to, also not fighting or bickering with Tobio if he doesn’t feel like it. He also has a friend who helps him with his conclusions and whatsoever. However, he’s an emotional, outgoing person, easily going from hyper-happy to sad if the aura drastically drops. Usually, he has some kind of sunny atmosphere wherever he goes, but also this can vanish. Lately, it seems forced to be so content and not only Oikawa’s picked that up. With a gulp, the chocolate-eyed boy clears his throat after some quiet time in which the younger visibly calmed down and speaks up, mentally preparing himself to be labelled as the most awful person to ever exist.

“Why have you been so down recently? It’s not only from what happens right now, isn’t it?” When Shouyou visibly tenses, fists tightening their hold on his shirt, teeth clenching and tears almost welling over the edge of his eyes, Oikawa’s fast to amend, “But you don’t have to say anything! I’m just worried, the others most likely too. I can also just go if you want. I’m the worst person ever.”

“No, you’re not, it’s nice to hear someone care at the end of a straining day, more so if it’s another one than the person you’re attached to at the hip, not that it wouldn’t be nice.” He shakes his head, chuckling. A genuine smile ghosts over Oikawa’s lips. “And I should talk about it. Perhaps it actually helps to fill these gaps of missing conclusions.” The moment the older begins to detangle himself from him, he holds him back.

“Hey!” Shouyou blinks, sheepishly, and says afterwards, “Not in this very moment though. Let me calm down for a second, please. I don’t want my blueberry to think you harmed me in any way when it’s the total opposite actually. Need you with no broken bones or missing organs. And no, don’t say anything. La, la, la, la!” Oikawa blanches quite a bit, yet smirks at the mention of his _totally-_ or _at-least-soon-to-be-_ boyfriend, but keeps quiet, sitting silently with the other in his lap and tries to resume eating his now cold noodles.

“Plus, we also have to go a friend of mine. Maybe that smartass will grant us with logic.”

Oikawa gets surprised once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope my writing even makes sense lol. my anxious ass is quaking
> 
> anyways,  
> today? i'll provide with totaly not boring shit  
> next update? who knows
> 
> but what'll happen to our kou o.o  
> only i know ehehehehe- cough
> 
> but... teruaka. don't touch me, i'm soft
> 
> thanks for reading i love every one of you!


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